Dr Who in The Beano

Dr Who will appear in a special edition of the UK children's comic The Beano - home to Dennis The Menace and his pooch Gnasher - to raise money for BBC's charity extravaganza Comic Relief, which produces the worst TV evening of the year. We're assured that this loss of an evening's entertainment at the licence-payers' expense is for good causes. African warlords? The Nigerian Mafia? Who knows? We Brits are a trusting lot; that's why international criminals and our own politicians find it so easy to rip us off. The Beano charity edition with the first BeanoMAX monthly - a mere coincidence - will go on sale on 15 February. BBC switchoff night is 16 March.